The Rebel Jesus (Guest Speaker: Rev. Lenny Duncan)

Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4 (NRSV):

Lenny is the author of United States of Grace: A Memoir of Homelessness, Addiction, Incarceration, and Hope and Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher to the Whitest Denomination in the U.S. He is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. He is an instructor at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and doctoral student at the Graduate Theological Union (both in Berkeley, CA). He is the co-creator and co-host of the Blackberry Jams Podcast, which looks at the intersection of jam band culture (e.g., Phish) and Black liberation.

Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4 (NRSV):

1 The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.

The Prophet’s Complaint

2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,

    and you will not listen?

Or cry to you “Violence!”

    and you will not save?

3 Why do you make me see wrongdoing

    and look at trouble?

Destruction and violence are before me;

    strife and contention arise.

4 So the law becomes slack

    and justice never prevails.

The wicked surround the righteous—

    therefore judgment comes forth perverted.

God’s Reply to the Prophet’s Complaint

2:1 I will stand at my watchpost,

    and station myself on the rampart;

I will keep watch to see what he will say to me,

    and what he will answer concerning my complaint.

2:2 Then the Lord answered me and said:

Write the vision;

    make it plain on tablets,

    so that a runner may read it.

2:3 For there is still a vision for the appointed time;

    it speaks of the end, and does not lie.

If it seems to tarry, wait for it;

    it will surely come, it will not delay.

2:4 Look at the proud!

    Their spirit is not right in them,

    but the righteous live by their faith.